Social media facilitates sociopolitical development; however, xenophobic sociopolitical climates engender acculturative stressors for immigrant-origin (IO) youth's online experiences. Through interviews with N = 90 IO youth (Mage = 16.41; 74.44% female-identifying; 33.33% Asian, 26.67% Latinx, 25.56% Black, 8.89% multi-racial, 3.33% white, 2.22% Middle Eastern), we qualitatively identified two meta-themes regarding youth's critical reflection catalyzed by online content: identity-related processes for their role in society relative to others' lived experiences; meaning-making of sociopolitical issues through online socialization experiences. Youth's reflective processes were closely linked with their emotions. Affirming sociopolitical messages fostered emotions like care and inspiration; exclusionary and anti-democratic messages sparked frustration and anger. Findings demonstrate how online experiences shape interconnected sociopolitical processes of and emotional responses to critical reflection and identity development for IO youth.
Karras et al. (Wed,) studied this question.